. . . freshened the deck

Here is a shot of the uncovered portion of the back deck, with the floor and the railing newly painted. I would like to find a way to keep the leaves off it permanently, but short of cutting down the tree, I don't think there's a way. That big hedge tree provides a lot of shade, but when the hedge balls fall off, it sounds like bombs hitting the house.




Here's the portion of the deck that's covered, right outside the back door that leads into the family room. The other side entrance steps down to a small brick patio, a rose arbor, and a flower border. It looks so fresh and clean and pretty that I don't really want to put anything back on it. When I took these pictures, the deck was still sticky in spots, even after a day and a half. I'm guessing that's because it reached about 100 degrees here yesterday, and will today, also. But I can't leave the stuff in the yard, like the picture below. . .





I didn't realize how much junk I had on the deck until it was all gathered out in the yard. I will do some judicious editing to determine what comes back up and what gets pitched and what gets sent to "the boss's" store for resale. I wish the guys had put the screens back up . . .